FEALAC 25years fealac

Workshops / Seminars

At the IX Senior Officials' Meeting, sports were included in the former Working Group on Politics, Culture, Education (PCE) as a new field of cooperation (FMM/2010/3, para. 4). The member countries reached the consensus on the importance of sports as a useful means of strengthening cooperation in the framework of FEALAC. It has been widely recognized, as can be seen in the various activities carried out by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and CulturalO rganization(UNESCO) such as the Round table meetings on Traditional Sports and Game(TSG) that traditional sports plays an important role in promoting cultural diversity and preserving cultural identities at the local and national levels. Traditional sports also have a significant impact on national cohesion by fostering respect for the identities of communities from different cultural backgrounds. "
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FEALAC enjoys a rich diversity of traditional sports. There exist more than 100 traditional sports among the member countries that have obtained world wide recognition. Promotion of development and exchanges of the traditional sports will contribute greatly in strengthening mutual understanding and friendly relations between FEALAC member countries."
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The general objectives of the forum are as follows. The forum aims to facilitate creation of networks and deepen understanding of traditional sports of FEALAC countries by inviting policy makers and experts in traditional sports of member countries to the forum and sharing their situation and policies and private sectors' initiatives in the promotion of their traditional sports. We also aim to contribute in formulating effective government policy related to promotion of traditional sports by sharing and discussing successful experiences of member countries' public and private sector. Lastly, the forum seeks to find ways to increase exchanges of traditional sports among FEALAC member countries. "

The Forum took place on November 17, 2011 in Seoul and participating countries were from Asia: Korea, Mongolia, Singapore and Thailand and from Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. It was divided into 3 sessions: The first session introduced policies of promotion and exchanges of traditional sports The second session focused on private sector???initiative as well as successful experiences on promotion of traditional sports industries. The third session discussed ways to enhance exchanges and cooperation on traditional sports. The Republic of Korea hopes that this will be the first of many projects related to sports which member countries willo rganize in the future. Korea believes that it has contributed in bringing together experts on traditional sports to help them exchange their research and create a community that will allow them to further promote the importance of traditional sports."
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